Online shopping scams: Tips to stay safe

Hyderabad: You order a phone online and you end up getting a brick instead or you order a sofa set and you receive a second hand used furniture. These kinds of things have either happened to most of us or someone we know has gone through this experience. In a world where everything is available […]

Hyderabad: You order a phone online and you end up getting a brick instead or you order a sofa set and you receive a second hand used furniture. These kinds of things have either happened to most of us or someone we know has gone through this experience. In a world where everything is available online, buyers are going through different experiences while ordering goods online.

This experience is called selective scamming wherein certain online buyers of goods receive their purchases, but some others do not get theirs despite making the payment. As a result, money is taken off such individuals in exchange for nothing and victims of these scams are unable to get to the root of the problem.

---

According to a data security network company GajShield Infotech, such scams are generally seen during the purchase of large orders and despite paying money, such individuals do not get their goods or receive goods of poor quality.

“This cyberattack is generally seen on the dark web, where shady customers purchase illegal things like weapons and banned drugs from equally shady vendors. However, one can assume that the likelihood of such attacks crossing over to mainstream retail websites could be quite high,” says Sonit Jain, CEO, GajShield Infotech.

Here are a few ways to deal with such scams:

· Maintaining purchase receipts

Selective scamming can be avoided by paying a little attention to minute details. One such detail is the receipt of payment for every purchase you make. Keeping receipts can be handy to prove that payments have been made in advance. If push comes to shove after a selective scamming attack, and matters end up in a court of law, those payment records can be used for legal purposes.

· Deploy data security tools

Modern data security tools can be used to verify whether a website is shady or not based on its traffic history. Website blockers and intelligent firewalls can be used to prevent users from entering such websites. As a result, users can prevent getting pickpocketed remotely by scammers on the other side of the world.

Internet users should avoid going to the dark web, even out of curiosity. Selective scamming and other problems are heavily prevalent in that space. Using these above measures, you can prevent yourself from getting selectively scammed outside of the dark web.

---

Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.
Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .